Need opinions: Proceed AVP vs. Anthem AVM20

great question. i have been thinking many of the same thoughts. i have a krell hts, but have been running a separate preamp (the front left & right channels output from the hts run through my preamp) because the hts lacks a good analog preamp. I like the idea of simplifying with just the Anthem piece. I think the Proceed piece is very good (probably better than my hts) but the upgrade path is slow and expensive. You'll get much better bang for your buck with the Anthem.

Well, I have an AVP and I haven't heard the Anthem but I just went through a similar thought process and this is what made me decide to get the Proceed. 1. Great reviews....almost universal praise for the AVP. 2. I bought mine used for $2500.00 I figured that when the upgrade becomes available, I could upgrade my unit and have a $7000.00 unit that is cutting edge with Madrigal's quality behind it and which may be upgradable again for minimal cost.

I am a firm believer in "you get what you pay for" and in this case, I find it hard to believe that a $3200.00 Anthem can compete with a unit costing more than twice its price...not to say it couldn't happen but I doubt it.

I don't know if that helps but I hope it does.

Jared

Why not look into the classe SSP30??? I've a little experience with the AVM2 from Anthem, and wasn't at all impressed with the sound I was hearing! (yes, it's all system dependent and room and such, but still didn't care much for what was coming from the speakers!). The Proceed is definitely clean and great sounding. Although I'm not so sure it's better in either 2 channel or Surround than the Classe!!!
Anyway, The Anthem does offer Advanced bass managment flexibility (a plus for proper speaker/sub configuration maximization!!!), plus dirrect through puts for all channels, and 24/192 dac's or something!?...plus 7 channel.
However, I'd only buy this piece if you audition it first!!! I've heard the others in mention sound very very good!...very good infact! Tough choice, and I guess depends on your set-up/needs. Have fun

Thanks for the feedback. I agree with points in both replies, which is why I'm having a difficult time with the decision.

The Proceed AVP is obviously of excellent quality. My concern with Proceed is the dead-end that became of the PAV/PDSD. Those fine "future-proof" $10,000 products are now selling used in the low $3000's. The only available next upgrade to the AVP is going to be $1500-2000 for hardware and software. This upgrade will be to just bring it up to spec with the other latest products on the market. $5000 for a used processor is more than I want to spend for the latest technology, and given the PAV lesson, I'm not sure I could justify dropping that much money on a processor. What happens if component video becomes more the standard than s-video? Another hardware upgrade for the AVP? Another ka-ching...

The new Anthem AVM20 has everything, including the kitchen sink. A surround processor is merely a computer, so it is easy to bundle all the toys in the latest products. The question I have about the Anthem is in its sound quality and build quality. I haven't really read anything bad about the Anthem AVM2 (the older version). For that matter, the B&K Ref30 in the same class enjoys pretty good reviews too.

So, I can buy an AVP1 for about $3000, upgrade it to the AVP2 for another $2000, total investment is $5000. For half that, I could pick up a new B&K Ref30 or the Anthem AVM20, and have all the latest features, including component video capability. The Anthem AVM20 sports a huge video bus of 100Mhz which will handle hdtv quite easily. I hear the Proceed's video bus runs at like 70Mhz, which is questionable about what it will support.

I have read reviews and opinions about surround processors, it just seems that Anthem has incorporated pretty much everything that has been complained about what other processors are lacking.

Does anyone have practical experience with the Anthem AVM2 or done any direct comparisons against other similar processors?